The death has taken place in Uganda of an Irish-educated doctor renowned for introducing palliative care to Africa. Dr Anne Merriman had celebrated her 90th birthday only last week, receiving tributes from President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
Dr Merriman, who took her medical training in University College Dublin, established Hospice Africa Uganda in Kampala in 1993.
Known as “the mother of palliative care in Africa”, she went on to establish the Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care in Africa alongside the hospice. The institute offers masters, bachelors and diploma programmes in palliative care, training hundreds of students from 37 African countries.
Paying tribute to Dr Merriman after her death on Sunday, UCD School of Medicine noted how she also supported new initiatives in Tanzania, Nigeria, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Ethiopia, Zambia, Sudan and Rwanda.
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In decades of missionary and medical work, Dr Merriman was credited with improving the lives of thousands of critically ill people. Her model of affordable, home-based palliative care, using oral morphine to manage pain, revolutionised end-of-life care in Uganda and Africa.
Once a nominee for the Nobel peace prize, she was born in Liverpool to parents who were English-born children of Irish emigrants. After leaving school in Liverpool, she joined the Medical Missionaries of Mary (MMM) order in Dundalk to fulfil a dream held as a young girl to serve the poor in Africa.
The order sent her to UCD to train in medicine, after which she worked for 10 years in Nigeria as a missionary doctor and for two decades in Uganda.
She left the order after 20 years but maintained a strong faith and deep ties with the MMM sisters. She also worked in the UK, Malaysia, Singapore and Kenya, gaining extensive experience in tropical medicine and community health.
[ Dr Anne Merriman’s hospice brings dignity to the dying in UgandaOpens in new window ]
She received the Presidential Distinguished Service Award from President Higgins in 2013.
In a birthday greeting last week, Mr Higgins described her legacy as “nothing short of inspirational”.
“You have awakened a continent, and the world, to the fact that pain relief and compassionate holistic care at the end of life is a fundamental human right. Your work has laid the foundations for the development of palliative care across Africa,” Mr Higgins said.
“It is incredible to think that when you established Hospice Africa Uganda in 1993 there were only three countries in Africa with palliative care. The fact that today 37 African countries have palliative care is testament to your work and your vision that there is palliative care for all in need in Africa.”
Mr Martin also paid tribute to Dr Merriman on that occasion. “Through your tireless efforts, you have brought dignity, comfort and peace to patients and their families, where once there was pain, fear, and suffering.”
Ireland’s Ambassador to Uganda, Kevin Colgan, said she was a “treasured and active” member of the Irish community in Kampala until recent weeks.
She was named UCD Alumnus of the Year in Health Sciences in 2016. She served as an honorary teaching fellow at Lancaster University and an honorary professor of palliative care at Makerere University, Kampala.
